Lagardere Buys UK Entertainment News & Community Site DigitalSpy

Rafat Ali

Apr. 9, 2008 - 3:53 PM PST
Apr. 9, 2008 - 3:53 PM PST

DigitalSpy, one of my favorite UK TV and entertainment news sites, has been bought by Hachette Filipacchi U.K., part of the French media giant Lagardere. The financial details were not disclosed. Hachette UK started its digital division last year with the launch of ElleUK.com and Sugarscape.com

DigitalSpy started in 2000 as a TV news and community (message boards) site and then expanded into other areas such as movies and celebrity news. It is the fourth largest entertainment news website in the UK according to comScore (NSDQ: SCOR), with more than 2.1 million unique users on its news site and 3.1 million on its talk forums.

From DigitalSpy’s own story: The deal provides for significant investment in Digital Spy, allowing the site to increase the volume and breadth of its coverage. The management and editorial teams will remain unchanged.